Claymation


Clay animation is one of many forms of stop motion animation. Each animated piece, either character or background, is "deformable"—made of a malleable substance, usually Play Dough or plasticine.

MATERIALS NEEDED

  • Storyboard graphic organizer
  • Non-drying clay so that it can be manipulated for action shots - varied colors
  • Utensils for clay work (plastic knives, forks, toothpicks, pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks)
  • Extra crafts supplies (glue, scissors, tape, markers, sharpies, wire, brads, buttons, string)
  • Suggested: boxes to set up the scenes and to store the material when not in use
  • Cameras and tripods
  • Computers with timed frame action (iPhoto, iMovie, VideoBlender, iStopMotion, etc.)

We will use four phases to implement slowmation. These are:

Phase 1. Planning: students learn about a concept

Student Activity:

- Choose a topic from the following and brainstorm to provide examples of storytelling techniques.
- Plan who (class, group, individual), what (assess something students know or personal research) and how (resources considered such as diagrams, making models, cut outs, number of cameras, tripods, computers).
Ideas:

Science:
- Animal adaptations (camouflage, mimicry)
- Life cycles (seeds to flower, metamorphosis)
- Moon phases
- Seasons
- Cell division
- Making a scientific discovery
Social Studies
- Animate an historical event
- Timeline of events
- Famous speech (record speech for movie)
Language Arts
- Design a scene and record a poem,
- Personification
- Figurative language (hyperbole, onamatopoeia)
Maths
- Show examples of math operations (addition, multiplication, subtraction and division)
- Show concepts such as fractions, shapes, measurement, elapsed time.

Phase 2. Storyboarding: students break down the concept into its component parts with storyboarding.
- Break the whole concept down into 4-6 major scenes or episodes using the Chunking.pdf file.
- Create a more detailed sketching of each movement using the Sequencing.pdf file.

Student Activity:

- Plan the 20-40 movements for the concept.

- Roles are allocated: story boarder/explanation/script writer, model maker, and photographer.

- Decisions made about use of signs, music, arrows and narration

- Write the narration to accompany the chunking or sequencing sheet.

Phase 3. Construction: students make or use existing models and take photos of them.
Windows_Movie_Maker_Instructions.pdf
  • Students make the models of the concept.
  • Usually a cardboard project sheet is taped flat to the floor to resist movement and a camera is mounted on a tripod looking down.
  • Make sure the camera is set at low resolution or low picture quality otherwise the animation will be too big.
  • Take the photos in order.
  • Download the photos onto a separate folder on your computer desktop.

Phase 4. Reconstruction: (uploading, editing and narrating)


  • Download the photos onto a computer.
  • Add real-life photos next to the models but these need to be copyright free.
  • Lengthen the time exposure of individual photos for important static images.
  • Record the narration.
  • Upload to the website.

Click to go to Samples

Click to go to Ideas




TIMELINE

22 October
Day 5 periods 1 and 2
Introduction to Slowmation
What is Slowmation
Video clip examples - Chicken Run, Wallace and Gromit
Video examples of student work
Discussion
23 October
Day 6 period 4
Group discussion and appoint Group leader
Brainstorming ideas for the movie
Some suggested ideas: topics currently being taught in Science, English and Social Studies
Decide on the learning outcome
30 October
Day 3 period 2
Planning of the story - use either Chunking.pdf or Sequence.pdf
2 November
Day 4 period 4
Storyboarding continued
Narration - script to go with the slowmation
Make the playdough at home or alternatively if you want, you can purchase them from the Two dollar shop.
3 November
Day 5 periods 1 and 2
Storyboarding continued
4 November
Day 6 period 4
Construction - photographing the sequences
Remember to bring the playdough otherwise you will not be able to start making your models
10 November
Day 3 period 2
Construction - photographing continued
11 November
Day 4 period 4
Construction - photographing concluded
Deconstruction - importing photos into MovieMaker
12 November
Day 5 periods 1 and 2
Deconstruction - editing/sound/text/transitions
13 November
Day 6 period 4
Deconstruction - final editing
19 November
Day 3 period 2
Group Reflections:
Constructive evaluation and analysing the slowmation movie
What did you get out of it? How did you work as a
Insert Table
Insert Table
group? What was the end product like?
Did you achieve the learning outcome that you had originally planned?
20 November
Day 4 period 4
Reflections completed
Email completed movies and group reflections to Mrs Yeo
21 November
Day 5 periods 1 and 2
Show the slowmation movie to the class

Videos to Watch on Claymation

Scratch

Google Earth and Voicethread

Sketchup Historical House Project

Jing Project

Claymation Groups